This is a good blog…I think 
I went to a filmmaker mixer in Burbank tonight. Burbank is about 40 miles from my house. It was raining. There was traffic. A 30-minute drive (over the speed limit) took just over an hour.
Me and “mixers” don’t mix. Most mixers are poorly organized and fall short of everything promise during the promotion: i.e. mixing and networking. What you tend to have are people crowded in a room and groups of people who already know each other mixing with each together. The atmosphere of these events rarely — if ever– are conducive to actually meeting someone new, sharing interests and perhaps doing business. What these mixers need is a facilitator — someone who does more than print name tags and job descriptions. We need someone to force, coerce, bribe, beg, inspire people to actually mingle beyond their comfort zone. We need a game, a common task that brings people together, one that convinces folks to walk across the room and introduce yourself to the guy/gal you’ve been staring at for 15 minutes because you hear they were an executive producer with money connections.
In all fairness I think some effort was made to put the mix back in mixer during the event I attended. However, within 10 minutes of arriving and standing in the midst of a crowed VIP room I thought, Here we go again…a mixer with no mixing.
Again, in all fairness, I may not be the easiest person to approach. I where my feelings on my face. I’m a big guy. Black. Bald. Some people are intimidated. Some could care less how big or black I am. With this in mind I try to make eye contact with folks and then…smile.
Then a Costume Designer came in and introduced herself to me and the gentleman standing next to me. She said she was really a fashion designer but chose the closest name tag. She engaged me and the gentleman next to me, which got us gentleman talking, and then gentleman and I ended up chatting for an hour.
He was an executive producer. With a webseries. And…making money right now. He adheres to the no budget concept of filmmaking for each episode. And…he is making money right now. Meeting him couldn’t have come at a better time for me, particularly because I am on the cusp of my first web series Resurrection of Serious Rogers. The things he spoke of were all the things I want to employ for RSR, from the production process to distribution.
Unfortunately, for various reasons it’s hard to find people who possess that just-wanna-work and make films perspective. There’s so much talk about big budget films that many actors don’t feel truly validated until they’ve worked on a big budget film. In fact some actors would rather work as $300-a-day nondescript extra on a studio film than as a deferred-pay leading man or woman. I know we all have bills to pay — trust me, I have a mortgage, a wife, four kids and two car notes so I know – but would good is added a few dollar signs to your bank account when you soul is fizzing away doing shit work?
Anywho. I digress. Meeting the creator of Journey – the webseries was enlightening. We sat in the back and talked nonstop for an hour. As far as I was concerned the evening was a complete success. We exchanged info, links, FB info and promised to chat the next day. He asked me if I’d be interested in directing an episode of Journey. Um…hell yeah!
On my way out the door I met another gentleman named Kazan and a young lady from Kenya. We chatted briefly and I exchanged information. I liked Kazan. He seemed like a very grounded gentleman with a wife, a kid on the way and a pleasant demeanor. And I can always use another actor.
I’m glad I made time to go to this mixer event. I actually have my wife to thank. I was going to sit at home and watch season five of LOST. But speaking of scifi, I just might be directing part of a sci-fi series.
